Press & News

Daily Labor Report notes Firm's Annual Workplace Class Action Report: G.Maatman and S. Poor Quoted
03/10/2006

An article ("Labor: Surging Volume of Wage and Hour Suits Pose Financial and Reputation Risks to Employers") in the March 10, 2006 issue of The Daily Labor Report highlights the firm's Annual Workplace Class Action Report quoting both Steve Poor and Jerry Maatman.

The article notes our position that there are significant financial and reputational risks associated with such collective actions. Settlements continue to be more common than trials, but the value of the settlements continues to grow. "The stakes in such litigation can be extremely significant, as the financial and operational impact of such cases are enormous," commented J. Stephen Poor, managing partner of Seyfarth. "More often than not, class actions adversely affect the market share of a major corporation and prejudice its reputation in the marketplace. It is truly an exposure which keeps corporate counsel and business executives awake at night."

"Gerald Maatman, general editor of the 153-page report and co-chair of the Seyfarth complex and class action practice group, said the report evaluated 209 state and federal rulings pertaining to workplace class actions during 2005. The report focused specifically on the rulings that illustrate how workplace class actions were prosecuted, defended, and resolved last year. The report not only analyzed the key trends, but provided summaries of the rulings on a circuit-by-circuit and a state-by-state basis. This is the second year Seyfarth has released the report. "The statistics will eventually show lots of class actions, but more of them are being filed over wage and hour issues than any other sorts of issues," Maatman told BNA. "Since the California labor code amendments were passed in the early part of this decade, there has been a significant uptick in the amount of state law class actions brought over wage and hour issues. Today, just in Los Angeles, there are probably five to seven labor code class actions filed on a daily basis."

Maatman said that while California state courts are leading the nation in workplace class action filings, the trend is spreading to other states as well. He said plaintiffs' lawyers are showing similar enthusiasm for state court actions in Texas, Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, and New York. "Employers are definitely winning more class certification fights than they are losing. But success depends on what circuit you're living with," he said. "Certain circuits are more favorable for employers than others. By and large employers are doing very well in the Fifth, the Eleventh, the Sixth, and the Eighth. You are seeing employers winning class action certification battles because judges are saying when plaintiffs seek monetary damages, it is an inherently individualized issue and therefore the class action system doesn't work."